Officials confirm that US president will break with decades of diplomacy in a move many warn will trigger unrest in the region
Julian Borger in Washington and Peter Beaumont in Jerusalem
Wednesday 6 December 2017 07.14 GMT
Donald Trump will declare formal recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel on Wednesday, the White House has said, breaking with years of precedent and potentially leading to unpredictable consequences for the Middle East.
The region is braced for the prospect of unrest in anticipation of the declaration, due at 1pm in Washington, and US embassies around the world have been advised by the state department to bolster their security.
US government employees have been told to avoid Jerusalem’s Old City and the West Bank until further notice.
In his remarks to be delivered in a diplomatic reception room in the White House, Trump will base his decision on ancient history and current political realities that the Israeli legislature and many government offices are in Jerusalem. He will also order the state department to start the process of planning and building a new US embassy in Jerusalem, but White House officials said that process would take at least three years.
Until the new embassy is completed and opened, the official US mission will remain in Tel Aviv and the president will continue to sign a six-month waiver of congressional legislation that demands the embassy is moved, but only to spare the state department from budget penalties embedded in the 1995 act.
Officials made clear that Trump would not follow the practice of his predecessors, who used the waiver to prevent any action on the embassy move to avoid derailing any progress towards an Israeli-Palestinian settlement.
“For a long time the United States’ position held that ambiguity, or lack of acknowledgement would somehow advance the prospects of peace,” a senior administration official said.
“It seems clear now that the physical location of the embassy is not material to a peace deal … So having tried this for 22 years, an acknowledgement of reality seems like an important change.”
Trump’s declaration will mark the latest unilateral break from US allies on a major issue, after decisions to walk out of the Paris Climate accord, to abandon multilateral trade negotiations with partners in Europe and Asia, and to threaten to abrogate an international nuclear deal with Iran.
In making his decision, following through on an election campaign promise, Trump shrugged off appeals from leaders from France, the EU, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and other key allies. They urged him not to prejudge an issue that would be at the heart of any comprehensive deal, which is something his administration has made a foreign policy priority, entrusted to the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
On the eve of his announcement, Trump made a series of calls to leaders in the region, including Jordan’s King Abdullah, Egypt’s President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, King Salman of Saudi Arabia, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Palestinian persident, Mahmoud Abbas.
Abbas’s spokesman, Nabil Abu Rdeneh, said the Palestinian leader had warned Trump of the dangers of such a decision to Middle East peace efforts as well as security and stability in the region and the world.
King Abdullah issued a statement telling Trump that such a decision would have “dangerous repercussions on the stability and security of the region” and would obstruct US efforts to resume Arab-Israeli peace talks.
King Salman was reported by the Saudi Press Agency to have told Trump: “Such a dangerous step is likely to inflame the passions of Muslims around the world due to the great status of Jerusalem and the al-Aqsa Mosque.”
Kushner, in his role as presidential adviser, has been leading a diplomatic initiative aimed at concluding the comprehensive Middle East deal that has eluded previous admissions. The White House insisted that Trump’s announcement would not derail that effort.
“Nothing in this decision speaks to a final status resolution, or boundaries or sovereignty issues,” a senior administration official said. “It doesn’t change the status quo with respect to the holy sites and other very sensitive issues.
“We are leaving space for the Palestinians, for this peace process to move forward.”
Another White House official said the Kushner initiative was making progress even though little had been heard about it.
“There are things happening that the people directly involved in the talks know about that people around the world don’t know about that will become known when the time is right,” the official said. “That is one of the reasons that the president is still very optimistic.”
READ THE REST:
I get the sense that Twitter-in-Chief is doing his best by constantly throwing bones at his voters who by in-large have turned their back on him. This move is meant to take heat off that other story Russia-gate, which now evolved into Israel-gate. It turns out to be his son-in-law lobbying the Russians and others on the UNSC to veto the Israeli settlements that the Obama Administration abstained from. Trump selfishly threw Flynn under the bus to protect his personal interests(mainly Kushner and Tel Aviv). If Trump wants to save his presidential legacy, he needs to get off Twitter and go face-to-face with the 60-odd million people who voted for him to clear the toxic soup that’s simmering in DC. Was there any collusion? Hardly, also considering that colluding isn’t really a crime. What about obstruction of justice? I would not say a definite yes, but a strong possibility……more to come.
PS I found an article in the UK telegraph that may interest you. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/12/07/german-spd-leader-martinschulz-seeks-united-states-europe-2025/?utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook
Thanks for the links Jason.
The twitter thing: I believe Trump does it as a way of bypassing the selective quoting/misquoting/editing of the MSM: Trump unfiltered. Sometimes it works in his favour, sometimes not, but at least you know what he’s thinking, not what someone else thinks he’s thinking!
The Jerusalem story as a diversion from Russiagate? Interesting perspective, but wow, that’s one hell of a volatile diversion!
I can understand why he uses Twitter(despite his use of poor grammar)?
But in reality, every post he uploads is very much official in the context of his position of power and it very much can be “damned if you do, damned if you don’t”. But he needs to disclose about 2 things:
1)Did Trump instruct, or did he know about Michael Flynn was acting on behalf of his son in-law to lobby the Russian Ambassador and members of the UNSC to rescind the vote(S.C 2234) regarding the condemnation of illegal settlements in the West Bank?
2)Does any of Trump’s staff(including himself) have vested interests in the development of illegal settlements in the West Bank?
Here is some more info about Israel-gate from Phillip Giraldi via Global Research posted Dec. 5:
https://www.globalresearch.ca/russiagate-becomes-israelgate/5621769
US presidents and their staff always seem to have “vested interests”: Capitalism at work! Pretty much every war the US fought overseas was based on vested interests (and then there’s 911).
Jared Kushner? Always a man to watch closely. Interesting article in the link Jason. Cheers.